through relationships with family, friends, meaningful work, and engagement in our community rather than relentless striving for material possessions. There is also evidence that once basic needs are met, substantial increases in income do not translate into sub- stantial increases in happiness.3 We’re discovering that over-con- sumption in consumer societies is neither the ultimate path to authentic happiness nor the path to sustainability. The concept of sustainable happiness draws attention to


Sustainable Happiness is happiness that contributes to individual, community and/or global well-being, without


exploiting other people, the environment or future generations.


ways to deal with the emotions associated with environmental degradation. At first glance, it may seem


odd for a researcher recording children’s experiences of hope- lessness and despair about the environment to team up with a researcher working on sustainable happiness. What we share is an


the positive and negative consequences of how individuals, communities and nations pursue happiness. In a globalized world, everyone’s actions have repercussions on distant lands and people. Some impacts are merely short-term while others have enduring effects. Sustainable happiness can guide the daily actions and decisions of individuals to account for far-reaching consequences; it reinforces the need to consider social, environmental and economic indicators of well-being so that community happiness and well-being are sustainable at the national and international level, for now and into the future. You may be drinking a cup of coffee while reading this.


It’s a momentary pleasure familiar to many of us. Being mindful of such simple sensory delights is enjoyable and relaxing. Viewed through the lens of sustainable happiness, your daily coffee can be placed in a wider context. Is your pleasure enhanced when you drink fair trade coffee, know- ing that workers in the coffee plantation have been paid fairly and that the coffee was grown with regard for the environ- ment? Sustainable happiness reminds us to reflect on whether the positive emotion derived from the coffee (or anything else for that matter) has come at the expense of other people or the natural environment. The importance of considering more hopeful approaches


is underscored by the experiences of children. Nearly a decade ago, David Sobel, director of the teacher certification program at Antioch New England Graduate School in New Hampshire coined the phrase “eco-phobia” to describe what really happens when we lay the weight of the world’s environmental problems on eight and nine year-olds already haunted with too many concerns and not enough real con- tact with nature. “Ecophobia,” he writes, “[is] a fear of ecological problems and the natural world. Fear of oil spills, rainforest destruction, whale hunting, acid rain, the ozone hole, and Lyme disease. Fear of just being outside.”4 Albert Zeyer of the University of Zurich demonstrates


that many high school students today are fully aware of our looming environmental crises, yet feel powerless to change things.5 “They suffer latent environmental depression,” Albert explains. The result of decades of “gloom and doom” messages is a generation of informed but disillusioned and depressed youth. As one teenager in the study puts it: “We don’t have a chance.” Despite this, environmental education research is largely


silent about dealing with the emotional implications of the environmental crisis on kids or teachers. Words like grief, despair, or anger rarely appear in our writings, and there is virtually nothing in the literature addressing appropriate


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interest in exploring the emotional aspects of environmental education, and the need to acknowledge the feelings children and teachers experience, both positive and painful. Sustain- able happiness reinforces the fact that our lives are inextri- cably linked with other people, other species and the natural environment. It serves as a vehicle to identify options for creating more hopeful, joyful, and sustainable legacies.


Elin Kelsey, PhD, lives in Pacific Grove, California where she works as a consultant with Stanford University, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other institutions . She is spending the summer studying hope and resiliency as a Visiting Scholar at the Cairns Institute, in Queensland, Australia. Catherine O’Brien, PhD, is an Associate Profes- sor of Education at Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Both authors are eager to hear from readers and researchers who are working with these concepts. Contact them at Catherine_OBrien@cbu.ca and elin@elinkelseyand- company.com.


Notes


1. Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P., “Beyond money: Toward an economy of well-being,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 5, 2004, pp. 1-31.; Stutz, J. “The role of well-being in a great transition,” GTI Paper, Series No. 10, Tellus Institute, 2006.


2. Kasser, T., “The Good Life or the Goods Life? Positive Psychology and Personal Well-Being in the Culture of Consumption.” in Joseph, S. and Linley, P.A. ed., Positive Psychology in Practice, Wiley, 2004, pp. 55-67.


3. Seligman, M.E.P., Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment, Free Press, 2002.


4. Sobel, D., Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education, Orion Society, 1995.


5. Zeyer, A., and Roth, W.M., “A mirror of society: a discourse analytic study of 15- to 16-year-old Swiss students’ talk about environment and environmen- tal protection,” Public Understanding of Science 4 (2009), pp. 961-998.


The activities below are drawn from the Sustainable Happiness and Health - Teachers Guide by Catherine O’Brien. This new resource offers curriculum-based activities and lesson plans for grades K to 6 that are linked to health education outcomes, with many cross-curricular applications. Available for free in both English and French, the Guides can be found at <www.sustainablehappiness.ca/for-educators>.


Elin Kelsey’s newest children’s book, Not Your Typical Book About the Environment (Owl Kids 2010), aims to allay children’s fears about environmental doom by showing them what a remarkable time they live in. Smart technologies, innovative ideas, and a growing commitment to alternative lifestyles are exploding around the world. The book won both the 2011 Green Earth Book Award and the 2010 Moonbeam Children’s Book Award and is short-listed for the 2011 Canadian Children’s Book Awards. Learn more at <www.elinkelseyandcompany.com>.


GREEN TEACHER 93


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